Tel Aviv, Israel
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Ahead of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to Washington, DC, this week, Israel has taken a series of sweeping steps to tighten its grip on the occupied West Bank.
On Sunday, Israel’s security cabinet approved measures that expand the country’s enforcement powers and allow the state to buy land for the expansion of settlements in a way that far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said would “fundamentally change the legal and civil reality” in the West Bank. The territory is held by the United Nations and the international community for a future Palestinian state.
The Israeli steps include expanding Israeli enforcement in…